The Snell family partnership is well recognised as one of the stalwart farming families in WA. Their two cattle properties enable John and Len Snell and their families to value add their beef from the station to the plate.

Wangawol a large, arid, station to the east of Wiluna in Western Australia holds the 4,000 head breeding herd of Shorthorn based pastoral cows. The calves from this property are weaned onto Charla Downs in Waroona which, is situated in the high rainfall south-west belt of the state.

The Snell's experience with Limousin stems from their presence in the feedlot.

Consequently, Limousin's were chosen to introduce muscle into a segment of the Shorthorn herd which had become their second grade females. The destiny of these females was to be culled, but prior to making this move the Snells decided to try mating them with Limousin bulls. Approximately four years ago the Snell's purchased 40 young Limousin bulls to put to this cow herd.

The selection criteria used by the Snells is quite strict and is based upon their understanding of the local beef market. Having run a substantial feedlot which catered for the local domestic and restaurant trade for many years they understood what it would take to produce a saleable product and in turn they knew what kind of Limousins would help to produce such a product.

"We need to watch out that the bulls are not too big and too lean. Some bulls are too rangy, we look for bulls with more dumpiness, but with the softness that can form good fat cover", John Snell commented.

"We were pleased that the bulls have adapted well to the arid conditions and we have no trouble with temperament from them. The result of this mating has been very successful in that the calves have moved into the 1st grade of calves."

He added that Limousin bulls have helped to achieve two important results in their beef.

"We are particularly interested in retaining redness in the meat and our goal is to put more muscle into the commercial herd. Limousin bulls are helping us to achieve both of these goals."

"Charla Downs" grows all the hay and roughage for the feedlot and the 3500 calves from Wangawol are put onto supplementary feeding in Waroona. The animals spend between 90 and 150 days on feed. They are supplied with a ration of approximately 40 percent grain with the remainder being made up of the roughage produced on Charla Downs.

The current enquiry for Limousin in the export market and the current opportunities for export ensures that a significant number of bulls, steers and heifers are sent to the middle east, Jordan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. One of the biggest shipments to date was a line of 1200 steers send to Tipperary Feedlots in Indonesia.

John said that the 300 head lines which are offered of Limousin parentage are well received and are conspicuous by their muscling and their size, they are noticeably bigger than their Shorthorn siblings at the same age. Other calves are placed into the local domestic market where they are fed on to achieve domestic standards

In addition to producing top class crossbred cattle for the feedlot the Snell's have also used Limousins to improve the yield of their breeding matrons. Spencer, John's son, manages this AI program which uses Shorthorn semen over the best Limousin/Shorthorn females in order to establish a population of larger and more muscular breeding females.

The Snell Family's success in exploiting the Limousin advantage saw them named the WA Commercial Breeders of the Year in 2000.